hello,

i've heard a bassline which seems to be a layered one but i can't figure out how it exactely works. there seems to be a sub-bassline and a 2nd one which plays the main bass figure but whenever i create a bass out of these 2 components it doesn't "roll".

so maybe there are some more layers within this bass? it would be great if someone has somne additional hints about the construction of this bassline.

here is the link to the .mp3-file

Yeah there is defintely two bass lines in there ... one is bright a and percusive and the other one is sub bass and mello sounding ... but its just the same bass line being layered

quote:

Originally posted by /I\ Yeah there is defintely two bass lines in there ... one is bright a and percusive and the other one is sub bass and mello sounding ... but its just the same bass line being layered

hello, i've posted another layered bassline sample at the same URL (another layered bassline example). It starts pretty simple but beginning with 0:28 the whole thing get's running.

i'm not sure if the second, lower base plays a simple

--x--x--x- ... pattern

or

xx-x- pattern

or if there is happening someting completely different.

Sounds like your right. the lower one is standard off beats and the higher one is doing like a cross between an arp and a high bass line

The lower one could also be playing up an octave on the down beat (with the kick) but its hard to tell if its sub bass or if its the oomph from the kick because it is blended in so well

quote:

Originally posted by /I\ Sounds like your right. the lower one is standard off beats and the higher one is doing like a cross between an arp and a high bass line The lower one could also be playing up an octave on the down beat (with the kick) but its hard to tell if its sub bass or if its the oomph from the kick because it is blended in so well

what i also noticed is, that after the subbass starts, the main bass seems to get wider in the stero panorama, giving the subbass line more space to work in the center (in the bassline2 example).

i really like these subtile elements but sometimes it's very hard to hear them (and to learn from them). i very often use time-stretching and bandpass/locut-EQing to analyze special elements of a track but i doens't work properly in layered bass lines.

Its got heavy fx on it .. innit Well produced too ... ummm .. who is it btw

quote:

Originally posted by /I\ Its got heavy fx on it .. innit Well produced too ... ummm .. who is it btw

yes, the fx are very well placed - i like these kind of tracks which seem to be build very simple first but are very tricky on a lower level.

the example bassline was taken from a remix marc aurel did for jam&spoon (aka trancy spacer & spacy trancer for this track )

do you have any special techniques to analyze tracks beside EQing and timestretching? (and, of course the most important one, just _listening carefully_....)

The sub-bass on the 2nd bassline is just a simple K-X-K-X- pattern. The illusion of the xx-x pattern you mention just comes from the way the frequencies of the kick work with the freqs of the bass.

I'll dissect the 1st one a little bit later.

___________________
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."

Just listening to some of his stuff just now .. I like it too ... tnx

I sometimes use headphones with a flat eq and moderate volume level to pick out different parts. In this case I had to pump up the bass level a little and then switched over to my monitors to confirm what I thought I was hearing. Looping a part over and over sometimes helps or even eqing things out helps .. just like you said

The rest is just spending some time doing what you are doing, which is aurally dissecting tracks. Its like training your ear to be kinda like an an aural telescope so you can zoom into a part or frequency range and ignore everything else ... looks like you've got it sussed already

Last edited by /I\ on Jun-20-2004 at 17:47